1. Technical Field
The present application relates to surgical instruments, and more particularly, to surgical clip appliers having a plurality of clips for applying the clips to body tissues and vessels during surgical procedures.
2. Discussion of Related Art
Surgical clip appliers are known in the art and have increased in popularity among surgeons by offering an alternative to conventional suturing of body tissues and vessels. Typical instruments are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,030,226 to Green et al. and U.S. Pat. No. 5,431,668 to Burbank III et al. These instruments generally provide a plurality of clips which are stored in the instrument and which are fed sequentially to the jaw mechanism at the distal end of the instrument upon opening and closing of the handles at the proximal end of the instrument. As the handles are closed, the jaws close to deform a clip positioned between the jaw members, and as the jaws are opened to release the deformed clip, a new clip is fed from the series to a position between the jaws. This process is repeated until all the clips in the series of clips have been applied.
Typically, the surgical clip applier is removed from a surgical site after the last clip has been applied to body tissue. Afterwards, the surgical clip applier is either replaced with a replacement surgical clip applier or the existing surgical clip applier is refilled with replacement surgical clips. However, in certain situations, when the same surgical clip applier is mistakenly used after the last clip has been applied, the jaw members of the surgical clip applier may unwantedly grasp body tissue at the surgical site. As a result, the body tissue may be damaged, which sometimes causes trauma to the patient.
The need therefore exists for a surgical clip applier that is configured to lock out the handles after the last clip has been applied.